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Monday, March 04, 2013

Benedict XVI Honored by Eastern Orthodox Hierarchs

Another look at the Constantinople-Rome schism and a way forward for reconciliation

Following the
announcement of Benedict XVI’s retirement, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the
chief hierarch of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, issued a statement expressing his profound respect and friendship to Benedict. Bartholomew
honored Pope Benedict as an eminent theologian and reaffirmed his desire to keep
dialogue open between Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians “for the union
of all.” Benedict and Bartholomew’s friendship has been marked by their common
mission to restore Christian culture to Europe. The Russian Orthodox Church
issued a similar statement thanking Benedict for his efforts to restore
relations between the Vatican and the Moscow patriarchate.

Benedict XVI played
an important role in modern efforts to heal the schism between the Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Churches. Dialogue began in 1964 when Pope Paul VI and
Patriarch Athenagoras I went together as pilgrims to Jerusalem. The work of
restoring communion was renewed by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dimitrios I
during the 1980s. Between 1980 and 2000 the Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Orthodox Churchworked to find common ground that would
lead to further unity. After a period of interruption, Benedict and
Bartholomew reopened the work of the commissionin 2007. Pope Benedict signed
a joint statement with Patriarch
Bartholomew in 2006 that renewed their commitment to building Christian unity
and working together for the common good of humanity. Admittedly, progress has
been slow—too slow for some critics, but then long histories of contention
between alienated peoples take a lot of time to heal, Christian or not. Hasty
reconciliation attempts between Rome and the Eastern Orthodox in the past did
not prove successful.

Like the Oriental
Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox Churches have counterparts who are in full
union with the pope, called Eastern Catholics. The Eastern
Catholic Churches are part of a long-standing effort to reunite Catholics and
Eastern Orthodox Christians. Unsuccessful reunification attempts took place in Lyon
(1274) and in Florence (1438), but the current Eastern Catholic communion was
established by the Union of Brest in 1596. At this council the Metropolitan of
Kiev (in modern Ukraine) united his church to the Pope of Rome, which is why
they are sometimes called “Uniates.” The Ukrainian Catholic Church is the
largest of 22 Eastern Catholic Churches, sui iuris, in the world. The
Ukrainian Catholics even have a cardinal, Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus Lubomyr Husar, who was papabile at the 2005 papal conclave but is no longer eligible
because of his age.